Weird Noise, Your Opinions

[Longbottom]

Hi all! I am having some trouble over a sound my Auris makes. I'll try to explain it as well as I can: the noise sounds a bit like rattling or grinding, half high pitch (almost like a fairly high pitched acceleration noise). It seems to come from the right side of the motor. It only happens sometimes, I would say about every second or third journey. It always comes after around three kilometres (say two miles) journey, It only lasts about 2-3 seconds, usually when pressing the accelerator (for example when going out on the motorway). After that, it is gone and won't come back again until a day or two later. So it never happens more than once a journey, and when gone it stays gone.

It first appeared two months ago, after the car had been for service. The only thing they changed on service was oil and brake fluid. The only difference from before is that I now have 5w30 oil instead of 5w40 (which the former owner used - don't know why he chose it). The car is a 2009 1.33 petrol.

I naturally took it back to Toyota, and the spend a whole day going through the car without finding anything. They had a theory that it might be the EGR module creating resonance when warming up, which they considered as something that might happen but isn't necessary to fix. They told us to come back if it gets more frequent or the car starts working worse, but otherwise considered it as nothing to worry about.

The car works fine and the noise doesn't seem to do anything. Still, I am of course a bit worried.

So, do you have any ideas what it might be?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Toyota's preferred oil for an Auris manufactured after April 2009 and with an Optimal Drive engine is 0W-20 - if manufactured before April, 5W-30 is fine

[smudge-1991]

Personally I would now wait for something else to happen so it can be more easily traced saying that there is ways round it to test I would wait and see if everything starts performing any differently (worse than it should ) then look into more depth

[Longbottom]

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely not do anything with the car now, it works absolutely fine except for the noise. But I am curious what it could be.

[Speed_Chaser]

Could it be the water pump? How many miles has the car done so far?

[fastbob72]

Is it that squeal. you get at times. from a worn, dry or stretched fan/drive belt. A sort of high pitched squeal that appears and lasts a few seconds the stops, it's a horrible screech that sounds like an. engine killling itself but then it's gone.

If thats what it is it tends to be a worn. or slipping belt or less often dried out water pump, altenator, power steering, air con bearings but more. commonly the belt. If that sounds like what you're experiencing. try a new drive belt first

[Mooly]

Almost certainly not your issue but I'll mention it anyway. I occasionally have noticed an unidentifiable noise for a couple of years now and was convinced it was coming from the steering column. It was very infrequent and could seem to go for ages without doing it.......

Long story short, I pinned it down to the air flaps in the heater control box. When automatically changing from floor + dash vents to just dash and vice versa it makes the noise. Imagine a penny rolling on the dash, sounds a bit like that.

[Paul E]

Only just noticed this so apologies for delayed reply. I have a 2009 1.33 Yaris which has the same engine. I had an "odd noise" which could be what you describe. In my case it was like a "pinking" noise (I'm old so I remember when engines used to pink). Like a light metallic tinkling noise. It only happened very occasionally, and in the end I noted it always happened when I took the engine over 4000 rpm (as I occasionally would when accelerating down a motorway slip road for example).Long story short Mr T sorted under warranty. A piece was missing from the air con pump pulley, causing vibrations when the engine went over 4k rpm. Fix was a whole new aircon pump - big £. The pulley is not available as a separate part, it comes in unit with the pump So for a start, have a good look / feel around under bonnet (engine off!) and see if your A/C pump pulley is in one piece.

Apologies if this is not your problem, but worth a check just to see.

Of course you may have it sorted by now...

Paul